Gaelicisation

Gaelicisation or Gaelicization is the act or process of making something Gaelic, or gaining characteristics of the Gaels. The Gaels are an ethno-linguistic group who are traditionally viewed as having spread from Ireland to Scotland and the Isle of Man.

"Gaelic", as a linguistic term, refers to the Gaelic languages, but can also refer to the transmission of any other Gaelic cultural feature such as social norms and customs, music, and sport.

Today, Gaelicisation, or more often re-Gaelicisation, of placenames, surnames and given names is often a deliberate effort to help promote the growth of the modern languages and try to counteract centuries of Anglicisation.

The Manx language, which is very similar to Irish,[3] has undergone a major revival very recently,[4] despite the language being so rarely used that it even being mislabelled extinct by a UN report as recently as 2009.[5] The decline of the language was primarily as a result of stigmatisation and high levels of emigration to England.[4]

There now primary schools teaching in only Manx Gaelic, after efforts mainly modelled on the Irish.[6] The efforts have been widely praised,[7] with further developments such as using technology to teach the language being put into place.[8]

In the Republic of Ireland, around the turn of the 21st century, estimates of native speakers of the Irish language ranged from 20,000 to 80,000 people.[9][10][11] In the 2006 census for the Republic, 85,000 people reported using Irish as a daily language outside of the education system, and 1.2 million reported using it at least occasionally in or out of school.[12] In the 2011 Census, these numbers had increased to 94,000 and 1.3 million, respectively.[13] There are several thousand Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. It has been estimated that the active Irish-language scene probably comprises 5 to 10 per cent of Ireland's population.[14]

In recent decades there has been a significant increase in the number of urban Irish speakers, particularly in Dublin. This community, described as disparate but large, well-educated and mostly middle-class, enjoys a lively cultural life, and has been linked to the growth of non-mainstream schools which teach through the medium of Irish.[15]

^MacLysaght, Edward. More Irish Families. Irish Academic Press. ISBN0-7165-0126-0. Retrieved 2006-11-20. Some became completely integrated, giving rise to the well known phrase 'Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis' (more Irish than the Irish themselves). These formed septs on the Gaelic-Irish pattern, headed by a chief.